TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Chewlee knew that today was her REAL birthday so she actually expected another party!  Her heart was just broken that *on her real birthday* no one was going to be here to celebrate it.  I ended up giving her FOUR pieces of bubble gum AND an unopened bag of Gummy Worms that I had bought for her anyway.  Then we went out and checked for more strawberries.  We found a few and I let her cut them from their stems.  Then we went and picked a few more radishes for salads and she cut the tops off of those.  She’s always very careful and watches out for my fingers, too.  It’s really cute when she tells me, *Watch your fingers, Grandma….I don’t want to cut you.*

She wanted to celebrate her *real* birthday so she changed her clothes.  She put on one of her favorite skirts and a pretty purple top.  Then she wanted to wear the necklace I gave her and I had to brush her hair.  She kicked off her flip-flops and put on her purple sequined shoes.  Then she asked me, very nicely, if we could go out and sit on the porch for a while.  I grabbed my coffee and we went to sit outside until her mother got here to pick her up.  The Beast was feeling sick so they didn’t go to Bible Study at church tonight.  Although Chewlee was disappointed, she rallied well.

That’s really why she chose the skirt and top.  She wasn’t going to wear one of her *good* dresses so she picked the next best thing.  She also put on some of her strawberry lip gloss to finish off the look she wanted.

She was a bit upset when she got home from Summer Camp.  She said no one wanted to pick her to play on their teams.  They picked their friends so she didn’t get to play some of the games she wanted.  She also said that she was called *ugly* today and that hurt her.  I think someone was teasing her but it wasn’t how it made her feel.  Her mother and I told her that she needed to make some new friends when she said she wanted her old friends back.  I gather that not many (if ANY) are going to Summer Camp.  She said she wanted to go to sleep-away camp, not THIS one.

I told her she needed to be older AND to learn to listen to go to sleep-away camp.  When she asked HOW OLD she needed to be, I told her at the very least, she should be 10 years old.  I also told her that we had sent her mother to sleep-away camp and she told me that her mother had told her that.  She also told me that she knew her mother learned to ride a horse at camp.  Then she regaled me with the story of her riding a horse and they went to a bird house where all the chickens were dead and someone showed her a head.  She saw a woman that cut off the head of one and the body ran around afterward.  She thought that was weird.   It kind of blew me away that someone would show that to her.  She was only about three when she was on that horse.  I remember that time.

It looked like it was going to rain hard this morning.  I mean it was really dark and ugly looking.  But, after securing the umbrella, the clouds parted, the sun came out and it was a wonderful day all around.  Not too hot, a nice breeze and no rain at all.  It meant we needed to get out and water the garden and the flowers though….LOL.

Tomorrow Tara is supposed to be here with a check for our house in Guntersville that she bought from us.  I’m tickled pink that she will own it free and clear now.  That takes a big worry off her now.  And it means that I will be spending a lot of time trying to keep the Beast from going on a spending spree.  I kid you not.  We agreed to buying just a few things as well as paying for my trip to Chicago, of course.  But I know him.  All that money will be burning holes in his mind.

My needs/wants are simple.  Just a new desk chair and desk and we both agree on a new mattress.  His big deal wish was for the new zero turn lawnmower that he bought (put on his charge card and that will be paid off on Monday).  He’s still trying to become proficient on that.    He’s getting better but he’s a bit wobbly still. 

Love you all.  I’m going to get this posted now so I can just relax for a bit.  I have one more day for smoking and then I will be quitting on the first of June.  I hope I don’t have a hard time.  The Beast would just love for that to happen since he quit cold turkey and never looked back.  He did admit to me that there were a few times that he really, really felt like he wanted a cigarette but he worked hard to get busy doing something that kept his attention and he forgot about it.   I have lots that I can do to keep myself busy so we shall see what happens.

Be good.  Be safe.  Be happy. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

It started for me yesterday.  I had problems first with YIM (yahoo internet messenger).  We have never had an internet provider (except for Comcast years ago) that didn’t give us problems with continuity.  We would get kicked off every now and again without any notice.  What always…always…let me know if I was online or not was my YIM.  It would suddenly go to the start section where I would need to sign back in.  That told me I was NOT online.  Some days it was maddening because it would be for a minute or two.  Other days it would happen so often that I might as well not be online at all.

Then I couldn’t get on to Pogo.  Today it was the same thing, only worse.  It affected the Beast, too.  He hadn’t been online yesterday except briefly to check his email.  Today neither of us could get into our email, on Pogo and I still couldn’t get onto YIM.

Of course, we thought it was a virus or some such thing.  We ran our virus programs (we have two) then we tried restoring to an earlier date.  I won’t go into all the things we tried but, after a whole day of only being able to reach a few sites, we decided it was a problem with our internet provider.  It was crazy.  Then, after the Beast took a short nap, he got up and reset our modem and…we had full access to our internet again.  **Blush**  Such a simple thing but we, of course, looked at it all wrong. 

Then, I went to restart my computer after updating my Firefox and I almost shit when it said my boot manager was missing.  This was the second time in a week (or so) that I had a problem with my computer.  How often does your hard drive crash land at the same time that you have your modem screw up?  I had to swap out my hard drive (thank goodness the Beast keeps a couple extra ones around that are already formatted and have the operating system on them!).  Now my computer is working again and the Beast said to me as he left my  computer room….*Try to keep it working for a week at least, okay?*  Men are jerks.  Like I screw around or download a lot of things…..NOT!!!!  I just talk to various friends and family on YIM and play my games on Pogo or Sloto.  That’s my life on the computer. 

Right now, I am spending more time working in the garden (in the morning).  We are just loaded with strawberries.  I asked the Beast if he wanted me to make some jam now and he said to just keep picking them for now.  That works for me, too, since I would still need another two quarts for the amount of jam I would want to make.  If I am going to go through the trouble it takes, I want to make it worth my while.  Oh well!

Chewlee got in trouble here today.  She went outside and I was busy folding clothes.  She wanted to ride her bike (which is a biggie now that she doesn’t have training wheels).  I told her not to go away from the house and that she couldn’t go to Sam’s house OR Olivia’s.  It seems she decided to ignore what I said.  Worse than that, when Chewlee got to Sam’s house, Sam’s mother asked her if either grandma (me) or grandpa (the Beast) knew she was there and she said we did.  When I went outside to keep an eye on her after I was done folding clothes, she was gone.  The Beast was going to take Baron for his run anyway so he also looked for Chewlee.  Now she is punished by not being allowed outside except in the back yard for the next two days.  Worse yet, if she isn’t good during that time, she won’t be allowed to go on a canoeing trip on Saturday.

Chewlee started Summer Camp (which is at her school) today.   The bus picked her up this morning and brought her  home (to our house) after summer camp was over for the day.  I was shocked that the bus service was available but very grateful.  The same bus picks her up at her house or ours.  We only live a little less than a mile and a half apart so that works well for us all the way around.

When I asked Chewlee what she did today, she said she colored….all day.  AND it was boooooooring!  She was also upset because one of the pictures they colored was part of a contest they had.  The first one done got a sucker.  What the teacher DIDN’T say was that it had to be NEAT.  Chewlee wanted that sucker so she didn’t care if she stayed in the lines or not.  She didn’t get the sucker and she was embarrassed, too.  I told her it was only the first day of Summer Camp and they would be doing a lot of interesting things plus she would be starting swimming class soon.  She found out today she wasn’t going to Chicago with me BUT…she felt better when she thought about the swimming lessons and what that meant.  She would be learning in a POOL and that was what she wanted more than anything.  She can swim with her swimmies on but she does want to do it without them.  Plus, she wants to learn to dive.

I’m tired, mostly from frustration and aggravation with the crap we went through with the computer.  I didn’t even tell you all we did, including getting our Verizon wireless turned on (we can use it on a month-to-month basis).  That was money we spent that we didn’t need to spend.

Tomorrow I will tell you about my most recent experience with a Class Action Suit that I almost didn’t respond to.  But that’s fodder for tomorrow.  Love you all. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

First things first….the dog lived through the night.  We discovered that the Beast and I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep because we both were getting up to check on the dog.  I found him totally off the big cushion bed once (and the Beast says he did, too).  But he lived through the night and that was a surprise.

The Beast took the dog to the vets office along with his buddy, Jackie.  The vet said the dog was in shock and may have had a bad concussion.  She gave him a shot of morphine to make sure he wasn’t suffering pain and then she took some x-rays.  Turns out both his front paws are broken (she said they were a mess)….ca-ching $$$$$1200. to repair them.  It had cost us $150. for the morphine, xrays and the IV fluids to fight dehydration.  The bad part of the head injury is the fact that the dog doesn’t seem to recognize anything or anyone.  The vet said there wasn’t a whole lot of hope to offer on that.  The Beast paid her the money to put him to sleep and came home depressed. 

It couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes and the vet called us.  It seems this one woman that saw the dog, came over and pet him for a bit and asked what the story was.  The vet told her and the woman said this….how about if I pay you to keep the dog going for a few more days and let him try to recover from this.  Then, if he does and his mind seems okay, I will pay the money for fixing his paws BUT…..I want to keep him then.  Well, that was just fine with us.  If she was going to pay all that money out, we felt she would be good to him and that’s what we wanted….a good home for him.  Needless-to-say, we gave the vet our okay on that.

A couple hours later, who shows up at our door but the guy that owns *little Lazarus* (our kidding name for him).  He asks if we have his dog or have seen him.  The Beast crosses his fingers and tells the guy that the dog was seen on the busy street down near the crash barrier over the creek area.  He looked like a car might have hit him and he wasn’t moving when the Beast saw him (true).  But that’s where he stops.  I heard the guy say…..*Damn, someone might have stopped and picked him up or kicked him down near the creek…..*  The Beast, very casually, says to him, *Well, all you can do is go and see!* 

His coming over surprised us for two reasons….he has NEVER done it before (and he’s known where we live because of Baron playing with his dog) plus he’s never worried about that dog being gone for just the night.  I wonder just why he suddenly started acting like he gave a damn about that dog.  He left it for a whole week (while they went camping and could have taken the dog with them) with no food or water out in that yard.  Bastard! 

Chewlee was all upset with the Beast the other day when he took off her training wheels.  She chewed him out big time and was upset because she didn’t know how to ride her bike without them.  Well, guess what???  After a couple days of just attempting to ride (and she was so frustrated over it), she finally got it.  Yep, she taught herself how to ride her bike with no training wheels.  She was so proud.  I was sitting outside just watching her and suddenly, there she went…flying down the street on two wheels.  It was an incredible sight and one she will never forget.  She had to show everyone.  The bad part of this all is that now she’s very mobile and can disappear in a heartbeat.

Love you all.  Have a great week…or at least try to. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Remember the little dog I talked about yesterday?  Well, today a neighbor came over to tell us he thought he had seen the little dog on the road down about a half mile from the house.  He was explicit about where he had seen it so the Beast went down to see if it was him.  It was.  He thought it was dead and he couldn’t just leave it where it was.  When he went to pick it up, the dog lifted his head up.  That shocked the Beast because he didn’t see any breathing.  When he got it home, the dogs breathing was ragged and he seemed to need water.  He was in either shock or too much pain to get up to drink.  Our next door neighbor, who is a nurse, gave the Beast a large medicine dropper and we used that to give him water.  Just a bit at a time.

Nothing seemed to be broken but we couldn’t do much more for him other than keep him comfortable.  Our vet had taken the day off it seems so we’ve just been going out and keeping an eye on him.  If he has internal injuries, I don’t hold much faith in him living through the night.  He HAS been moving around the bedding we have him on.  He’s such a sweet thing.  I’m just furious with his (former) owners.  We will NOT return him to them if he lives.

Another neighbor, not his owners, told the Beast that if the dog lives and he takes him to the vet, they will split the cost with us.  I really meant it when I said he was a sweet dog.  No one that knew him would say anything differently.  He stole the hearts of everyone around here.

I’ve been watching him closely and I just have the strong feeling that he will be passing over the Rainbow Bridge tonight.  It’s why this is so late.  I was sitting next to him, just petting him and he would open his eyes.  I think it’s been a comfort to him.

The Beast decided he would be the one to break the news to Chewlee since she adores the little guy.  I think, because he’s so short, that he might actually have been hit by the undercarriage of a car.  He has no broken bones that we could feel but, like I said, if he has internal injuries, I don’t think he will make it through the night.  I’m sure he has a concussion but he IS aware that we are trying to help him.  At least we are trying to keep him alive until we can get him to the vet in the morning.  The Beast went to bed early so he can have the dog at her door at 8am if he’s still breathing.

Chewlee explained to me what the Beast had told her so she knows he may die.  She kept coming over to where he was laying just to make sure he was still alive.  She petted him once and his little tail wagged.  He recognized her, I think, since she would play with him.  I don’t think those (disgusting) owners ever played with him.  They are a young couple and the Beast thinks they just treated him like a lot of people here treat their animals.  They don’t know any different but I don’t accept that.  They really never considered having someone make sure the dog had water and food while they were gone for the week.  If the dog hadn’t gotten out, they probably would have come home to a dead dog.  That just makes me so angry.  It also makes me angry that he went out on the busy road and that someone had to know they hit the dog and they just drove on.  They deserve a special place in hell for that.

Well, gonna get this posted.  I shall let you know what happens.  If he dies, the Beast plans on burying him on our property.  Juli will want a marker so we will have to look for a big rock then.  Say a little prayer, won’t you?  At least he should pass peacefully since he doesn’t seem to be in a lot of pain.  There hasn’t been any whimpering so far.

Love you all.  Have a great week. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

The other day our dog, Baron (a 115 lb. monster…my word), stepped on my foot and primarily on the big toe of my left foot.  He really hurt me and it raised a big bloody blister on the side of the toe that he had kind of slid down.  He’s lucky I didn’t sling him across the room.  You try to protect the area but the blister was big and it broke.  I had it bandaged but….that really doesn’t help.  THEN…I find that the damn bandage itself raised a blister on the opposite side of the toe.  I now have is bandaged with a teflon coated gauze pad and paper tape so it can *breathe*.   We diabetics have a tough time healing sore on our feet due to the decreased circulation and the fact that the neuropathy in our feet often prevents us from feeling things we should. 

For example.  You will never guess what I stepped on in my kitchen today.  A bumble bee.  I kid you not.  It hurt me due to it’s bulk and shape but it didn’t sting me.  It was kind of like stepping on a rock.  No one was more surprised than I was when I went to sweep it up.  I saw it was something black and yellow so I knew it wasn’t a rock but I never even imagined that was what *I* had stepped on.  I still inspected my foot to make SURE that it hadn’t stung me because I just don’t feel a lot of things that are sharp down there.  I was just glad that I flattened it by stepping on it.  I couldn’t begin to imagine seeing it flying around my kitchen or living room and trying to catch it or even encourage it to fly out my door….LOL.

Anyway, back to my poor toe.  Chewlee had seen my *boo-boo* and thought I should beat Baron.  She was here when this all happened.  I kind of thought I was rubbing my toe more than I wanted yesterday when I went to Chewlee’s birthday party and was wearing the sandals I did.  The gauze I had around the toe was a bit on the rough side since it was really meant to go OVER a bandaged area but I was too lazy to go pull my supply box from the top shelf of my clothes closet.  That’ll learn me.  At least I can have my doctor check it out for me when I see him next week.  Hopefully, it will be healing but, if not, he should know what I need to do to aid that.  When Chewlee (who you can’t keep away when you want to) saw the toe today, she just went *ick!* and walked away.  But she was reacting to the loose skin from the blister. 

In the meantime, it hurts like hell to walk around.  The toe is swollen right now…not badly but just enough to make me aware it’s there and it’s sore. 

I think I’ve mentioned the little dog that has been hanging around our house.  I really can’t make out what kind of dog it is other than a small mutt with some terrier in it (but it’s much smaller than a terrier).  Chewlee can and does like to pick it up although it’s legs are hanging down.  Well, today the Beast and Chewlee gave it a flea bath….just because it it DOES have fleas, it will help keep any from getting on Baron.  It really needed a bath since it was both dirty and is shedding.  It’s got a double coat and winter is now over.  I was horrified at all the hair that was on Chewlee from picking it up.  Anyway, the dog really didn’t act like he’d ever been bathed before.  I think he stood still mostly because the cool water felt good standing there in the sun.  He’s been seeking shade out before that since it was warm out and I’m sure that double coat that is still on him didn’t help. 

Later on, the Beast went over to the owners house to see if anyone was around.  Chewlee had him on Baron’s leash so that he was following them.  The people were home and, get this….they couldn’t understand where he was since they had left him in the back yard a week ago when they left for a camping trip.  I know!  The Beast and I were horrified when we heard that.  All we could think of was….and how was he going to eat or get drinking water?  When it rained, where was he going to find shelter?  We know that house and it hasn’t even got a deck for the dog to get under.  They had put a chair to block the only access they knew that allowed the dog out of the yard.  Yeah, like even a little dog can’t knock over a folding chair?  Give me a break.  It’s probably the only thing that saved his life.

The Beast has decided that, if this happens again, that dog is going to be claimed by US and we will find a family that wants a sweet little dog.  In fact, we have a family in mind for that.  At least when they go away, they will make sure to find someone to keep it (probably us) while they are gone.  Since he and Baron get along, that shouldn’t be a problem.  The Beast won’t keep him mainly because we can’t keep him out of the garden and that is just a big no-no here.  We think this type of neglect has happened before because the hole they tried to block was one the dog had dug to escape the yard…and the Beast said it looks like he dug a hole into the access underneath and then dug another hole out of it.  That was a lot of digging for that little guy.

When it rained last week, we think that the dog must have gone underneath our porch out front.  That area stays dry pretty much partly because of the boards being so close together and then we have a roof over the porch, too.  If he stayed underneath and close to the house, he would have stayed dry.  He never looked drenched when we saw him.  We actually thought those people were putting the dog out when they went to work.  But we DID put out dry dog food for him and water, too.  That was just because we weren’t sure about these people and he dug into the food the first time we fed him.  After that, we left the food out for him every morning and all day long.  We only brought the food in at night because we ASSUMED he was home with his owners and we didn’t want any critters coming around for a late night snack.

Love you all.  Hope you had a good weekend but brace yourselves.  It doesn’t look good for us here as far as bad weather, tornadoes and rain, rain, rain.  Say a prayer for everyone in their paths. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

The day was just a bit cooler than I would have liked to see since we knew the kids would be using the Slip N Slide but kids are kids.  They didn’t care.

When I got there, Chewlee was in the pool with four or five other kids, including Chance.  Others were in the Bounce House (Dora again).  The adults and babies (there were a couple of them) were scattered around the backyard or under the canopy.  Tara saw me arrive and immediately went and got me a comfortable folding chair that she put next to her under the canopy (which was also close to the barbeque…LOL).  I had brought along some of my favorite Mudslide (small bottle, but it turned out it didn’t matter).  Tara got me a glass with some ice and I poured some out for myself and announced anyone could help themselves.  I was there for two and a half hours and just finished up the glass of Mudslide before I left.

Chewlee was having a ball.  She got excited when she saw me and ran over to give me a hug with a loudly announced, *Grandma!!!*  Again, Tara took my gift bag into the house to put it with the other presents to be opened after the cake was served.  Johnnycakes was grilling hot dogs and took my request to char mine.  I do like my hot dogs charred so I am usually welcome at any picnic.  There are always a couple that get a bit overcooked due to talking, distractions from kids, etc.  There wasn’t a lot of food to be wasted.  Just stuff the kids liked.  Hot dogs, a couple different dips, potato chips, lots of different stuff to drink like water, Capri Sun, sweet tea and a few sodas.  Oh, and some Mudslide….LOL.  There was also beer for the guys and any of the gals that wanted it. 

It was really a nice party for both the adults and the kids.  Chewlee blew out her candles with one blow and immediately claimed the Rapunzel figure on the cake.  She thought, at first, that it was edible but Tara informed her that it wasn’t and she should put it on her dresser or in her doll house.  Chewlee looked at it again, said, *OH!* and put it aside.  I had brought her some salsa and chips which she announced to everyone while she ate it, standing at the small table that was under the canopy.  It was in front of me so she kept coming back to eat it in-between being in the Bounce House and the pool.  Oh, and her slide and swing set got a lot of traffic, too.  I hadn’t seen it since she got it at Christmas.  Johnnycakes spent most of Christmas Eve putting it together and then staining it later on. 

Chewlee loved opening all her presents.  She got a lot of cash to spend later on plus some nice toys.  Someone gave her a nail and tattoo play set which she inspected later and tried to make sense out of.  She eventually put it away, along with the instructions, so that her mother could show her how to use it later on.  When she got to my gift, the first thing she pulled out of the bag was a big box of Skittles (a last minute purchase but the one she got the most excited about).  She ran over and gave me a big hug.  I had given her some money plus some different things for her hair (she immediately put one of the barrettes with a blue braided streamer hanging down in her hair) plus I got her some stretchy bracelets to match.  Since she had already had some of the little kids fake nails, I got her a set of those AND (as Chewlee said it….) a grownup eye shadow (light pink).  The Princess had suggested eye shadow since Chewlee had used up all the kiddie stuff she had.  I searched a couple stores and couldn’t find anything like that so I bit the bullet and got her some *like Mommy uses*.  Tara laughed when Chewlee got to the two big packs of gum (one bubble gum flavor, the other fruit flavors).  She opened one of them up and passed gum around to all the kids, making sure she asked their parents if it was okay if the kids were younger than she was. 

I got to meet the little girl that Chewlee calls her sister.  She was adorable and so sweet.  She helped Chewlee put her presents away and offered suggestions on how the nail and tattoo parlor might work.  I watched them together and it was just so damn cute.  Sarah even looks a lot like Chewlee (which Chewlee had told me before but I got to see it for myself today).  Even the Princess called her Chewlee’s sister so it isn’t an imaginary sister like I thought.  They live next door to each other and she is the daughter of Johnnycake’s cousin.  Cousin is close enough to make your sister.  I had one that I loved until the day she died, which was a tragedy in itself but I digress….

It was Chewlee’s day and I hated to leave but I knew the Beast was hungry.  He had stayed home because he got a new *toy* today.  A new John Deere riding mower.  It’s a beauty and very different since it’s one of the *zero turn* ones.  He’s going to have to learn a whole different steering method now.  He spent a couple hours trying to learn how to use it already and will be driving it all over our lots tomorrow, too.  The model he bought is actually one of the commercial ones.  I had to run back home to pick up my meds (which I had forgotten) and our RV-ing friends that bought the lots across from us were already at the house looking over the new mower.  Dennis will be needing one for himself and the two guys had been looking together for the best quality and the best buy.  I think, from everything the guys had talked about, that the Beast nailed both issues when he found the John Deere one he bought.  They hadn’t even looked at this model of John Deere so it wasn’t one of the ones they had been discussing.  I was getting a headache hearing about all the pros and cons so I’m glad that’s over for me now.

I came home from the party, tired but I had a good time.  Tara and I had sat together and talked and laughed a bit.  Poor Tara was in pain and I….don’t tell anyone….gave her one of my pain pills since both her doctor and her chiropractor haven’t given her anything more than ibuprofen.  Doctors are so afraid of prescribing pain pills for fear of misuse.  I told her to just take half and see how it worked for her.  Well, it worked.  Now perhaps she can sit long enough to get to her clients and get some work done for them.  She’s been in such pain due to the arthritis in her spinal column.  She’s going through some kind of physical therapy to relieve the stress in her muscles that’s creating the problem and it should help her but it takes time.  We shall see what the future holds.

Love you all.  Hope you are enjoying your weekend.  I am…so far.  Be good, have some fun and do a lot of smiling.  It will annoy some people but it will spread around.  Watch and see. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Tomorrow the Princess is having Chewlee’s birthday party.  It’s five days early but it’s better to have it early rather than late because then we would be hearing this:  *But (sob) I am ALREADY six! (sob, sob)  It’s AFTER my birthday! (sob, sob, sob)*  That’s because Chewlee knows the difference.  Today, when I said to her, *Tomorrow is your birthday and we are having a party!  Won’t that be fun?*  Here’s what she said to me….*Grandma, tomorrow I am having a party but it isn’t my birthday.  I won’t be six tomorrow.*  I told her that I knew that but we were going to have the party to celebrate her birthday so that all her friends could come.  She said, *I know THAT but I won’t really be six until Thursday.*  So I said to her….*Does that mean we can’t put six candles on your cake?*  She actually stopped to think about it and then said, *No, it’s okay to put six candles on it because I won’t have any cake on my REAL birthday.*  Kids! 

I watched Chewlee for a little while today while the Princess ran over to Walmart to pick up Chewlee’s big present.  No, it’s not an electric car which I think is a sad thing BUT….it will help keep Chewlee occupied at home because it happens to be one thing that Chewlee complained about to me today.  Oh heck…it’s a new bike so that Chewlee has one at home.  We have her old one here.  She wanted to go outside to ride her bike and I wouldn’t let her do it right then because I was busy with something and told her she had to wait.  It’s the rule here that she can’t play out front unless the Beast or I am outside to watch her.  She started to cry and said, *But Grandma, I don’t have a bike at my house to ride and I really, really want to ride it before Mommy comes to get me.*  The poor thing.  I made her wait all of five minutes while I finished folding a few things I wanted to get done and over with.  She actually counted them because I told her I only had six things left and then it would take me two minutes to put them away.  She then wanted to know what she had to count to for two minutes.  Her face looked really strange when I told her she had to count to 60 two times after I finished folding.  Because I had a grin on my face, she thought I was kidding her and told me so.  *Aww, Grandma…you are teasing me.  That’s not nice.  I’m serious!*  I just said, *So am I, dear, so am I.*

So we head outside and the neighbor across the circle’s little dog was outside, chewing on a tennis ball.  He jumped up and got so excited when we came out that he dropped that ball and ran over to the stairs.  Chewlee loves that dog.  It’s got a sweet disposition and loves to be petted.  He actually closes his eyes in this blissful posture.  Makes me wonder if his *family* ever pets him.  Anyway, after Chewlee petted him for a while, she decided to throw the ball for the dog to chase.  He started out chasing the ball, bringing it back but he’s never learned to drop the ball so someone can throw it again. 

I was telling Chewlee what to do to teach him about dropping the ball or at least letting her take it from him and she was doing what I told her.  After about a dozen or so times waiting for him to put the ball down so she could throw it (and she was more patient than I thought she might be), he actually got the idea.  He started dropping the ball when he got back to her.  He only kept it when he wanted to take a break because she kept throwing that ball for him for damn near an hour.  He has these short little legs and all I could think was it was lucky that Chewlee was really bad at throwing because it didn’t really go all that far.  He tried to jump up in the air to catch the ball when it bounced on the driveway but never quite caught it.  I think Chewlee was having almost as much fun as he was.  She didn’t seem to want to stop.  She stopped, reluctantly, when I told her it was time to go inside.  She never DID ride her bike….LOL 

Baron was going nuts while this was going on because I wouldn’t let him out.  He whined, he barked, he clawed at the door but I didn’t dare let him come out.  You see, he runs away from the house with that little dog and won’t come back when he’s called unless it’s the Beast that calls him.  Part of it is that I can’t yell as loud and I definitely can’t give the whistle (anymore) that would bring him back on the run.  We’ve only just started using loud claps and he’s not used to those yet.  So, when the Beast isn’t here, I don’t let him out front.  I’ll be damned if I am going to go into the house, get my keys and chase him down with the car.  He will immediately get into the car when I open the door for him but it’s a real pain in the ass to go through.

I mentioned to the Princess that I couldn’t believe that all Chewlee asked me to get her for her birthday was marbles.  The Princess put the kibosh on that idea as soon as I said it.  I guess Chewlee has three marbles at home that she finally took away from her because she kept putting them in her mouth and the Princess said she knew Chewlee would choke on them eventually.  It’s not like she put ONE marble in at a time, she would put all three of them in her mouth.  She said I should just buy her some of the kiddie makeup since Chewlee loves to put the eye shadow on (it’s shades of pink that you can’t really tell is on unless you are a little girl).  She loves when she dresses up to put her *makeup* on like Mommy does when SHE goes out.  I’ve seen her here almost panic if she forgets her eye shadow.  After she’s dressed up for church, she has to put her shadow on before her hair is brushed.  THEN she is ready to go.  She will grab her purse, put her shadow in along with her lip gloss and then she’s ready to head out the door.  Too funny.

So tomorrow, before I head out to her house, I have to hit the local stores and find what I can to add to her bag of goodies since she used up the last of her eye shadow the Princess told me.  I’ll do the best I can.  Of course I will.  What else are grandmothers and great-grandmothers for??? 

Her bounce house is at the house and Johnnycakes was going to be adding the air to it this evening.  They give you this small generator and I think it takes all night to fill it using one of those.  Plus the Princess bought a fancy kind of slip and slide with a ramp from a pool and a fountain around the edge of the pool.  The Princess said she is definitely going to give it a try since we are supposed to have another hot day tomorrow.  All the mothers were told to make sure their kids had their bathing suits either on or with them.  She picked up some extra towels to have there for everyone.  I told her I might even put on MY bathing suit, who knows?

OH! OH!  I almost forgot.  After all the rain we’ve had in the last week, I had to go out and check on my lettuce and radishes since you could see that all the veggies and other plants seem to have sprouted up more than double their sizes.  Sure enough, I was glad I brought a big bowl with me (and some scissors).  I cut some lettuce for our salad and picked the radishes that were poking out of the ground (those are the big ones).  I then went and cut enough asparagus for a side dish.  After washing the lettuce well, I put it back in the bowl along with some water and ice.  It was fantastic in my salad along with some cucumber, thin sliced onion, shredded carrot, romaine lettuce and a bit of red cabbage also thinly sliced.  Maybe it was just me but a fresh salad really hit the spot.  I tried a little bleu cheese dressing first…on one part of the salad, then some Ranch and then a little raspberry vinagrette that my girlfriend had brought over to the house to try.  It all tasted lovely and damn near filled me up.  I waited until later to eat the main course which was a stuffed poblano pepper from our favorite Mexican restaurant here.

Tomorrow, I MUST get out and pick the strawberries that are ripe and get those rinsed off and in the fridge.  I was going to bring some over for Chewlee but the Princess bought a few quarts because she is going to make some homemade ice cream to go with our cake.  That should be fun.  It’s been a while since we had homemade ice cream.  We used to make it a lot when we had our house in Margate, Florida.  We’d put it on while we were swimming in the pool (under the umbrella on one of the tables on the pool patio).  The Beast would keep getting out and pushing the ice cream down with the paddle because he was more impatient than the kids were (the Princess’s little friends that were swimming at our house).  I’m curious  to see if Chewlee will be impatient or not.

Love you all.  Time to get this posted.  Have a fun weekend. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Bad night last night.  Had pain in my left leg in the area between my knee and my hip.  Had to call the doctors office about that today because this has been going on for about two weeks now.  There has to be a reason for it.  Since I am having a sonogram of my right lower leg next week, I wanted to have the doctor order one for that leg area….just in case.  I keep thinking *What if it’s NOT something simple but maybe another area that needs looking at that might need a roto-rooting?*   That way, if I do need something like that, I can get it taken care of before I fly up to Chicago.

The Beast is still having a problem with that arm of his although it seems to be more the joint might be pinching a nerve.  I told him he should go see our regular doctor if this keeps up more than another day or so.  If it were me, I would have gone already but he can be such a pain in the ass over stuff like this.  It’s a man thing, I know.  Macho man crap.

Chewlee arrived here today with a couple baskets full of her stuffed animals of all sizes.  It’s going to be fun for her and the Princess to get it all back home tonight IF the Beast doesn’t drop her off after church.  He shouldn’t be able to since I doubt the Princess will be home from work then.  It takes her about an hour or so to drive home after she closes up the store.  Church will be over before that happens so Chewlee has to come back here thankfully.  My computer room looks like a toy store disaster area at the moment.  Especially when you take into consideration that her purse with makeup is here along with her big plastic bag full of crayons and markers.

She drew a picture of herself with a house in the background, a big tree, some butterflies and flowers and grass and hung it on my fridge.  It was the first thing I noticed this morning as I went to pour myself some milk.  It took me by surprise because she usually hangs her pictures up here in my room.

She must really love her new haircut because her mommy can straighten it for her in just a few minutes.  It took much longer when her hair was down to her waist (after straightening).  Now it’s zip,zip,zip!  She spent the morning brushing it and checking it in the mirror to make sure it was still straight.  She will see Birdie tonight and wanted her to see it straight and shorter.  She makes me laugh at how she loves that woman.  That’s the *child whisperer*.  All the parents are amazed at how quiet and obedient their kids are around her.  I can do that to babies but anything over a toddler and they are normal kids around me.    But I love that because you can see their personalities developing, good AND bad. 

It was really warm today but my fingers (the arthritic ones) are feeling better.  I think it was 85 around 2pm.  It’s 75 right now at almost 10pm.  It’s supposed to be nice and clear and about the same temp tomorrow here.  According to the weather channel, the country should be mostly free of any more rains, tornadoes, any kind of bad weather so enjoy it folks!

Love you all.  Think *great weekend*! 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I have been nagging the Beast about pictures from Chewlee’s graduation but, wouldn’t you know it, he fell and hurt his arm.  He is having a tough time using his right arm except for a few minutes here and there.  That happens after he’s soaked it in the tub for a half hour or so.  He’s spent his good time working on just clearing out his email or on his darn phone.  It seems that a former client of ours from when we owned our AC business has suddenly rediscovered his phone number.  He DID tell her within my earshot that this would be the last time he would make himself available because…darn it!  He was retired!  I doubt he would have been so direct with her except that his arm was paining him just then.

So Chewlee got dropped off around noon today.  She didn’t go to school because her teacher told the Princess that NO ONE from her class was showing up (it’s not required, I guess.  They DID graduate after all…!)    She was in a happy mood although she kept telling me that she didn’t go to school today.  I kept telling her I knew that but she kept bringing it up.  She got to play outside for a bit with Baron and the little neighbors dog.  Our RV-ing friend, Dennis, came over to meet with the landowner today.  I don’t know why but the Beast took off with him to hit the health food store to pick up a couple things.  Then they ate lunch there. 

I found out later that the Beast had been riding Dennis’s motorcycle and told Johnnycakes that it was HIS new toy.  Poor Johnnycakes was so excited over that he had to tell the Princess all about taking a ride on it with the Beast.  It had to have been when he dropped off Chewlee because I doubt the Beast would have ridden it as far as their house.  And I am sure the ride was just around the circle here.   He’s just a bit too shaky to trust himself much further.  I told the Beast that was just too mean of him to let Johnnycakes think he’d bought something like that motorcycle.

Chewlee had to make a BIG decision today.  It was about her birthday cake.  Yep.  It’s that time of  year.  Her birthday party will be this Saturday and the Princess is renting a bouncy house for her.  She’s invited a few of her school friends so she will have friends to enjoy the bouncy house with her this time.  I’ll be going (and Chewlee told me once again that she wants marbles for her birthday…..go figure that one out!)  I’ll pick her up some socks and an outfit or two and try to find some marbles for her, too.  I have no idea why she wants them but you can’t have a disappointed great-grandchild, can you?

Chewlee knows that Baron was born a few days after her and the Beast asked her if she was going to come to HIS party.  Chewlee said she would but she didn’t know what to get him.  Then she got this *bright idea* look on her face and said, *I know!  I’ll get him a big, disgusting bone!*  When I told her she could always get him a couple of raw turkey necks, she looked a bit green and got this awful look on her face.  I told her that it’s the only kind of bird meat he can eat….it has to be uncooked.  The vet told us that and I felt the way Chewlee looked because it just didn’t seem like it could be true until you thought about it.  When dogs were wild, they ate birds…and they didn’t die from it.  It’s only COOKED birds that have sharp points when chewed that can kill a dog.  Their bones are brittle after cooking.  But you should see how a dog will just lay into a raw neck or even a leg that’s been cut apart.  They act like it’s manna from heaven.  Who’da thunk it?

Then the rain came pouring down.  Lots of thunderings with it but no lightning that you could see.  I decided I had better make my spaghetti while I could in case we had a power outage.  It got done and the Princess and Chewlee ended up eating with us when the Princess got here to pick up Chewlee.  The Princess loves it when she doesn’t have to go home to cook.  Who doesn’t?  At least it was also nice to visit for a bit.

Love you all.  Have a wonderful day.  I know most of us had rain today but that will soon pass.  Be good.  Stay dry. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Yesterday, graduation…..today, her first haircut from a beautician at a real Beauty Salon.  The same salon and beautician that does her mommy’s hair.  Chewlee was tickled pink over that.  Chewlee told me she wanted her hair cut short…and she took her hand and put it at the back of her neck to show just HOW SHORT she wanted it.  I think her mommy and I talked her out of that but it really isn’t all that much longer.  It’s cut just below her shoulders.   The Princess was happy with that because Chewlee let her put her hair up in an off center pony tail and then the Princess put a pretty purple clip on it.  It looked very cute.

The Princess thinks Chewlee didn’t like having a pony tail because it was too heavy on her neck.  I don’t know.  That could have been the reason.  But I think it was because she had been teased too often about her ears and she wanted to hide them.     She would always check to make sure her ears were covered.

Then, after her bath and shampoo, her hair…which had been straightened by the beautician per Chewlee’s request…her hair returned to it’s naturally curly state.  Chewlee was unhappy and wanted her hair straightened again.  But her mother told her that she had to get up very early tomorrow and would be gone long before Chewlee woke up so she has to wait until Thursday to get her hair straightened.  I can’t believe that unhappiness with the kind of hair she was born with started so early.  I’ll have to ask my sister, Cee, and see if she remembers how young she was when she started hating her hair.  Cee was born with really, really curly hair…and it was thick, too.  My mother kept it cut short so she was just a bundle of curls all the time.  I know she always wanted straight hair and, over the years, she tried various methods that just never worked.  BUT….there is now a product that actually works for her.  She loves it.  She swears by it.  I’ve seen it and it really DOES work.  She looks great with it and it’s so much easier for her to style her hair.

Perhaps, one day in the future, Chewlee will be looking for something like that since she really, really wants straight hair.  I hope I am still around to see what goes on in her life when she is old enough to do some of the things she tells me she wants to do….including having brown hair.  She wants brown hair with blonde streaks in it.  It worries me that she has so many different things already set in her mind.  I’m hoping she changes her mind in the years ahead.  Only time will tell.

Love you all.  Have a great HUMP DAY (middle of the work week).  Drive carefully and stay cool.